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Thursday, 10 March 2016

Crafting with Clarity & Groovi!

Hello Friends,

It seems that I lost my aim/direction for a while. My life changed, I retired from all my crafting commitments and expected to be able to carry on crafting like before, only with no deadlines or thoughts about what "my ladies" wanted, I thought I'd be able to craft for myself! I expected to get messy with some Art Journalling, I have all the gear ;) and I'm sure I want to do it! I also expected that I'd be happy without the stresses that came with teaching and the planning of events and classes.

The truth though, was totally different. I couldn't craft, I couldn't think about crafting, I didn't want to get messy with Art Journalling, I even felt it hard to make cards for friends and family for occasions that required cards!

I definitely needed a focus, I realised that, when I attended Stitches, the UK crafting Trade show. I'm not used to crafting for me, I'm a crafter who wants to inspire other crafters and after teaching for more than 14 years, I suppose it wasn't ever going to be easy for me to retire from all of that.

Teaching at the W. I. Denman, (see my last post) was a blessing, totally out of the blue, as I'd never expected to be filling in for a sick tutor, but it turns out it was an absolute blessing. I had such wonderful feedback from the ladies who attended the course I filled in for, and now Denman has asked me to fill in again in April, I'm really happy that I was "good enough" to be asked again. Denman have also invited me to run some of my own courses, which will start in the Autumn. My purpose is back and so is my will to craft.

Preparing for the Parchment course at Denman, really did inspire me again, to go back to Parching! I'd been watching Barbara from Clarity on the t.v. with her new Groovi system since it was launched, it looked great and I certainly was kicking myself that I hadn't invested in it earlier!

So with the news and offer for filling in again for another Parchment class at Denman, I decided to send for some Groovi stash! I didn't hold back, I bought all I "needed"! My thoughts were that if I were going to introduce this system or even mention it, in a Parchment class, I'd need to give it a trial! I'd need to give it a "semi-professional""okay", if you see what I mean!

Well, I love it! Like everything though that I love and teach, I know I need to practice, practice, practice! I need to remember all I learned from all those years ago when I was first taught all the basics and I need to put what I learned then and what Barbara at Clarity is teaching us now, on the t.v., into practice. I think baby steps is the right way to go with this, I'm not trying to rush a card or rush anything, I'm taking lots of time to learn and practice again properly, I need to do things as best and as properly as I can, I'm such a perfectionist!

Here are a couple of cards I've made using the Groovi system.....

...this first one is a little bit messy! The colouring isn't perfect, you can see the smudges and the Picot edging has much to be desired...but I don't have the right parchment grid for the right spacing for the Picot edge cutting and my eczema isn't good at the moment - I can hardly hold a pair of scissors! I also wish I'd used a capital "J" for "Jimmy" on this card!

I'm much happier with this second card, it still wouldn't win any awards, but I'm fairly happy how it turned out!

Check out the white work on these flowers! Barbara reminded me on Sunday to do white work by gently embossing in short strokes and long strokes! The mat I have is old, very old and I found it easier to put a layer of dark card on top of my mat and emboss on that, it stopped me from going through the Parchment. I taught that trick to the ladies that I taught at Denman, it was a trick I never did forget!

On the first card above, I coloured in using my ancient Parchment crayons and used an old technique of dipping a tightly folded piece of kitchen towel into a drop of blending solution to blend the colouring strokes but it turned out messy! On the second card I used markers, they were so much cleaner! I never remembered using markers - back in the my day ;)! Oh times have changed and I'm happy that they have, especially with the new Clarity Groovi system!

Thanks for popping by, I hope you feel inspired to try this system - get into the groove, it's satisfying - yes totally satisfying!

You are perhaps like me and need to see a list of things that you "have" to do .. .. rather than having a free reign to do what takes your fancy. The bigger my list the more productive and inspired I am!

Pleased you feel back on track though and your Groovi cards are gorgeous. I don't think I would have the patience for parchment work but I do love the finished results.

I wonder if we passed each other without knowing at the Stitches Exhibition?

Private Tuition - One to one:

I have been a crafting teacher for about 17 years. I have been teaching the Silhouette software (Silhouette Cameo/Silhouette Portrait) for the last 5 years, on a one-to-one basis and also teach/run workshops on Parchment craft, using the Clarity Groovi system and general card making classes. If you are interested in being looked after for the day while you learn how to make your crafting projects look great, then email me. I'm looking forward to sharing my knowledge with you soon.